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STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
There were no deaths during the year from diphtheria, whooping cough,
poliomyelitis or measles.
Forty-six per cent of all deaths, 522 males and 875 females, were of persons
aged 75 years or more.
Thirty per cent, i.e. 322 males and 618 females, were of persons aged 80
years or more.
Nine males and 31 females were aged 95 years or more including three
females, two aged 101 years and one aged 102 years.
There was one death arising from abortion and one from other complications
of pregnancy.
Deaths of infants
During the year there were 58 deaths of infants under the age of one year,
of which 42 were under the age of four weeks, and 35 under the age of
one week.
The Infant Mortality Rate for the borough was 15-1 compared with 18 for
England and Wales.
Of the 35 infant deaths which occurred under the age of one week the most
common cause of death was prematurity.
Of those who died during the later months the most common causes were of
cardiac and respiratory origin.
Fatal Accidents
During the year under review, 32 (19 male, 13 female) Enfield residents
died as a result of motor vehicle accidents, and 39 (21 male, 18 female)
from other accidents. In addition there were 26 (13 male, 13 female) deaths
from suicide compared with 36 last year. A considerable number of deaths
occurred from accidents in the home and the most common causes were
injuries due to falls which in several cases led to lung complications,
asphyxia due to coal gas poisoning, and barbiturate poisoning.
Suicide
Most of the cases of suicide were by means of barbiturate poisoning or coal
gas poisoning, although a few other means were also used.
inquests
One hundred and ten inquests and 454 post-mortem examinations without
inquests were held during the year.
In respect of inquests, six deaths were attributed to natural causes, 66 to
accidental causes or misadventure, 25 to suicide, two to murder, two to
manslaughter, one to alcohol, one to drugs, and in seven cases an open
verdict was recorded.
Road accidents
I am grateful to the Borough Engineer and Surveyor for providing statistics,
and for the following report and opinion on road accidents occurring within
the Borough :
"The total of 2,055 casualties is a 4% increase on the total of 1,977 casualties
for 1969. The pedestrian casualty rate has remained steady and the
casualties to pedal cyclists shows a decrease of 18% or 41 casualties over
1969. The increase has occurred in the driver and passenger categories of
motorised vehicles. It is interesting to note that of the 432 pedestrian
casualties 185 or 42% are children under the age of fifteen years. The
statistics again emphasise that as far as child pedestrians are concerned
one of the major contributory factors is the parked vehicle, in fact 60 or 33%
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